Harmonising the acute respiratory infection Reporting System in the Czech Republic with the European Community Networks

Abstract number: 902_p1406

Kyncl J.

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Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are the most frequent human diseases with considerable health and economic impact. In 1951, the influenza morbidity monitoring programme started in the Czech Republic. The age-specific incidence of ARI and incidence of complications have been monitored weekly since 1968 and nowadays the system covers more than 5 million population (half of the Czech population). In an attempt to improve the healthcare information systems, substantial changes were made to the ARI reporting system in 20002002. Starting from season 2001/2002, each District Public Health Service enters the data from collaborating general practitioners and paediatricians in the central SQL database using a secured protocol https. The basic data processing is automated and uses a statistical model for early detection of unusually increased rates of the indicators monitored, based on a general linear model for left censored data. Direct standardization and weighting for the size of the monitored population are also used. In accordance with the European Commission decision on case definitions for reporting communicable diseases to the Community network one more change was made to the system. Starting from January 2004 the clinical data on incidences of influenza-like illness (ILI) within the same population and the same age groups as in ARI (05, 614, 1524, 2559, 60+ years) are also collected. Virological surveillance is performed by the National reference laboratory (NRL) for influenza and the NRL for noninfluenza respiratory viruses. The data on morbidity from epidemiological surveillance are integrated with those from virological surveillance. After approval and advanced assessment, the results are presented on a weekly basis. Comprehensive outputs to international centres such as the EISS or FluNet are provided by the NRL for influenza.

Conclusions:

The ARI/ILI reporting system of the Czech Republic is a modern and efficient tool of surveillance based on collection of high quality data. Since using an internet-based platform, it is easily accessible and provides timely information.

The project was partly supported by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic.